If they stopped over-venting the casks this would be one of the best beer festivals in the country. The selection is only just bigger than Chris Oís house. Only just though. The staff are friendly especially that guy behind the Hogs Back brewery with that Elusive beer. Nice gueuze range. I always get a special from De Molen and something crazy from the US. Great work CAMRA.

Hah, never knew I could rate a place where a festival is held solely for that reason. Anyway. What can I say: there were 900 different beers! 900!! Had a great time, service was good and pretty quick, lots of different food stands and lots of space though the seats are quite limited. Loved it though!

Great fun, go if you get the chance. Attended GBBF after 4 days of RBESG 2014. Of course make sure you meet up with the RateBeer crew to get the maximum amount of samples, a great group of people!
GABF could learn something from this event. Bought my tickets a few days before the event. Zero lines for entry, glasses, programs, buying beer and food. This is the way it should be.

A beery event, in a beery town, with beery friends - what more can you want??? ;-). Been to several GBBF, and I still love this event. Being at Olympia, this old exhibition hall just add another dimension to the festival. Nice selection of cask beers as well as bottle beers, lots of food stands, that sells a great varaity of food and beers snacks. I just love this event. See you next time ;-)

Probably the biggest beer festival in the country - usually held at the beginning of August. Itís been held at Kensington Olympia since 2012 and I must say that I much prefer this venue to Earls Court, which is due to be demolished to make way for flats. The Victorian architecture is stunning, with two of the halls lit through lovely wrought iron and glass arched rooves. The choice of British (and, to a lesser extent, American and European) cask beers is difficult to top and the atmosphere is always friendly and relaxed. Itís a marvel really that all this is organised and staffed almost entirely by volunteers - quite a feat. Oh, and Iíve never seen anyone overly inebriated there, which just goes to show that putting a few thousand people and an unlimited supply of beer together doesnít necessarily result in mayhem. Alcohol police take note! (Last visited 13 August 2014).

Incidentally, it seems strange to have a festival listed as a place - I wonder if there should be a way of reviewing festivals separately?

One of the British beer highlights of the year. Try to go on the Trade Day if possible because everything is a little less crazy. Range of regional British beer is huge and the American and Belgian bars always have some nice surprises. Only downside is that everything has to be cask so some of the American cask versions of beers can be hit and miss. However, I thought this year they did superbly. Food shops are also great here. Iíve not had a better pie, maybe other than at Craft Beer Co and the pork scratchings are awesome. Only downside is that the stalwart volunteers who run it can get a bit tipsy and so the service can be slow at times.

this page requires javascript

If you are using a script blocker please enable all of this page, including scripts from google.com. googlesyndication.com and google-analytics.com. These scripts are important to the health and happiness of this site.